I know Waldo is the man and I know is Tiger schematics are the ones to go with. I am not an electrician and believe I screwed this up major. Can someone PLEASE take some time and look at this web page I made with photos and just see if you can spot something? There's more info on that page. What a MAJOR disappointment to spend 5 months making it - a week to wire it - and it does nothing. This is my first project and really, really, need some kind folk to help.

Waldo's wiring, if done correctly, absolutely works great. You must have missed something.

Later on I'll have a better chance to look it all over - but at a first glance I noticed that you have the black and white wires from the pickups going to ground - they should go to a switch for the coil tap feature to work.

I'm sure we can figure it all out - you've just got a few things wired wrong.

Seriously though, point-to-point wiring is nothing to freak over, you can almost always redo whatever got misplaced. I had the similar problems (and horror) the first time I attempted to wire an OBEL + UGB.

Something looks kinda odd about the 5-way, but I can't put my finger on it; brain hurting too much on a Sunday morning...

"Note: Sting ground and pickup cavity ground not shown but were in Tiger. To be accurate the string ground ran along the cavity under the inlayed Tiger plate to the Tailpiece and grounded at the Buffer's ground. The pickup cavity was ran along with the pickup wires and grounded at the ground wire"

So, what does this mean? A wire attaches to the bottom of the bridge and goes to the ground connection on the input ring where ultimately, all the grounds lead to?

Now on the pickup cavity - where do I attach a wire to the "pickup cavity"? The plate itself on the underside? And run that wire to the same ground on the input ring? Confused.

The strings should be grounded, via a wire soldered/connected to the anchor of the tail piece or bridge, and as for the PKup cavity ground I am not sure if he means the plate the pkups are attached to, or a central grounding FOR the pickups themselves then wired as one ground wire back to the control cavity to keep less wires in that area. either way he was jumping the ground from the buffer.

As for your wiring, I gave it a shot to follow, but it is a little hard to see, It may be grounding itself on that foil if anything like the pots or unprotected joints/wire ends are touching it. Check your pots to be sure they're wired right. I followed rosebud's so I haven't attempted the Tiger thing yet, but I would re-wire it step by step in your mind, point to point through the schematic. I know you will fix it, everyone has trouble their first time, and my god, you attempted one of the craziest guitar wire's known to human existence! I have heard of experienced Luthier's getting questionable on this particular build... You have done a great job so far....almost there!! -JB

Your OBEL is right from what can see, I assume the yellow being the buffer.... Sometimes (rare that they are TOTALLY dead but possible) those switches can be busted or DOA, if you have a continuity tester(2 leads with a LED bulb that lights up if there is continuity) you may want to see if that switch(s) works too. You did have a healthy 9vot attached, yes? It may be wrong going to the jack but I can't tell which lug it tip or ring from looking, but ground is obvious... the side where the buffer attaches (yellow) should connect to tip, the return to ring (side that goes to volume).

The soldering on the first outter most split coil switch may be (overflowed) touching the metal of the switch itself..... put some flux on a copper braided wire and suck some of it off with your iron and that fluxed wire.

Myoung was right the middle tone is wired backwards as per schematic....

From looking at it, check your plug jacks, make sure you have the tips rings and grounds correct, you have them wired backwards from the schematic also from what I can tell, I am not completely sure which it tip or ring, but If I assume you have one correct, you at least have the other wrong if that makes sense....The 5 way is not soldered to the exact schematic either....

Last edited by JonnyBoy on Mon Jun 07, 2010 1:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

no, there are connections on both sides of the 5 way, i know its hard to see.... The OBEL may be sending your out signal through ring and back through tip also, which doesn't really matter for it to work, but for schematic sake it may help to have it like the paper. It is also possible that the line jack is backwards if the OBEL is right (actually sending through the tip and back into guitar through the ring). I can't tell from the pics which is ring or which is tip, but as per schematic one is backwards. The tone pot shouldn't keep it from making noise wired backward per schematic, but that 5 way should have connections on both sides of it and that may be you're problem. Check the 5 way, tone pot on the left in the pic, and double check those jack connections too. You're almost there bro. - JB